Daimler to Expand Investment in Romania

The German company is to invest €300 million in expanding transmission production in Romania.

Marian Chiriac

BIRN

Bucharest

Daimler AG, the German maker of luxury cars, on Wednesday announced it will invest more than €300 million in building transmission components at the site of Star Transmission, an existing joint venture in Cugir, central Romania.

Daimler will begin assembling five-speed automatic transmissions by the end of this year, while it will start production of front dual-clutch transmissions in 2014 and add capacity for the next generation of drivetrains in 2016, according to a company press release.

Star Transmission has two production units in Romania where 800 employees have been manufacturing components for motors and transmissions for all Mercedes-Benz cars since 2001.

The announcement was unexpected, as in 2008, Daimler chose Hungary over Romania as the site of a new car factory.

However, the investment was announced last week by the Prime Minister, Victor Ponta, who chose not to disclose the name of the investor, leaving room for speculation before the recent official statement from Daimler.

Romania is one of the main car producers in Eastern Europe. France's Renault produces the Dacia model at Mioveni in southern Romania, while Ford last year started production at a plant in Craiova, in the south-west. Dacia sold around 300,000 cars last year in Romania and abroad.